A snake? Stop it.

Are you familiar with Bill Engvall? I remember a part of his standup where he talked about people's reactions to snakes. Rarely calm or dignified.

I can vouch for that.

I also remember the boys doing research on Norway before we moved here. One thing in particular that they wanted to learn about was whether or not there were snakes in Norway.

I can now answer that definitively. And affirmatively.

Sunday afternoon, following our time with friends on the beach, we decided to go for a family walk at Folehavna (the end of west peninsula in Sandefjord, and the site of a WWII battery). We'd been walking for quite a while, and Daniel and I were winding through some narrow corridors of one of the old firing ranges. The wall to our right at this point was just below Daniel's eye level. Zack and William were walking on top of the range, just above us. And suddenly, Daniel saw something moving to his right. Zack realized what it was and told us to turn around.

And you bet we did! No time for pictures or anything. This dude was HUGE, and Zack was fairly certain it was the one bad species we have here.

But was he right? We only had to wait until the next day, as we hiked at Tønsberg Tønne. This time around, it was the same type, but much smaller, and on a walkway ahead of us. Zack had enough time to snap a couple of photos.

I do not like snakes. And I hope we don't see any more!

FYI - we confirmed that it is NOT one you want to encounter. Vipera berus is now on my [very, very short] list of things that I do not like about Norway!